


The Boyfriend

by Urbenmyth



Series: Tales Beyond The Archives [3]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: This idea popped into my head, and paranoia, some abelism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26939800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Urbenmyth/pseuds/Urbenmyth
Summary: Being the other side of a very familiar story.Not all Strangers look like strangers.
Series: Tales Beyond The Archives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965088
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	The Boyfriend

“You don’t understand! That’s not your boyfriend!”  
  
"What are you talking about? I've been dating Drew for years. You were there when we met, remember?"

"I know! But that's not Drew! You loved Drew! You must see it!"

I look at Laura, my anger slowly turning into concern. Her and Drew had never gotten on, sure, and at first, I thought this was some weird gaslighting thing to break us up. But this is extreme even for her. God, something might be _seriously_ wrong here.  
  
"What? Look, I can get up some photos from our trip to France together, if that will settle...”

“ _I know about the damn photos!_ ”

I stagger backwards as she yells, wild eyed and semi-coherent. I see the bags under her eyes. Fuck. When was the last time she _slept_?

“It got the _photos_ ! It got the _videos_! It got your _fucking memories_! But it didn’t get this!”

Pulling it from her wallet, she thrusts an old Polaroid at me triumphantly.

It’s a party. I vaguely recognize it, a friend's birthday from a few years back. Laura had been playing around with a Polaroid camera she had, taken snaps of a few of us. There’s me, on the sofa, talking intently to a tall, muscular man with long hair. I don’t recognize him. A friend of a friend maybe? There were a lot of people there.

“See? See?! That’s Drew! The _real_ Drew!”

Her smile slowly fades as it becomes clear I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“That’s not Drew. I don’t know who that is. I’m sorry Laura, but I think I need to call someone. You need help. Actual help..”

She makes a noise somewhere between a scream and a sob, and looks like she’s about to do something drastic. I’m thinking about what to do next when Drew comes downstairs, bleary eyed. 

“Is all ok, sweetie? I hear...”  
  
“You!”  
  
“Laura?”  
  
“I see you!” she screams. “You don’t fucking fool me!”  
  
And she lunges at him. She reaches into her coat, and I realize she brought a knife.  
  
Ah, shit.  
  
Drew’s always been short and skinny, but luckily I’ve always able to protect him. I wrestle the knife off her and pin her to the ground until the police arrive. The whole time, she screams and rants about how that’s _not_ Drew, how that was _never_ Drew. How she has the photos to prove it, if I let her show me them. How she can prove it all.  
  
The poor woman. I knew she had problems but...I never thought it would get _this_ bad.

After she’s gone, me and Drew talk. He seems fairly calm about this whole thing. Oddly so. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d almost think he was repressing a smile. Stress reactions are weird, I suppose.

I ask him, and he waves his hand.  
  
“Sure, it was scary, but honestly I just feel sorry for her. She’s clearly very sick. I think I’ll check in on her tomorrow. Maybe seeing I’m still me will help when the next delusional episode hits.”  
  
“Yeah, I guess so. Still, I wonder what happened? She seemed fine just a few weeks ago.”

“Who knows? Personal problems at home, probably. I don’t know. Still, enough about all this. She’s being taken care of. Lets just have a nice evening at home”  
  
I run my fingers through his short-cropped hair as he wraps his arms around me. It’s nice but...

Wow.  
  
I must be shaken up by the whole thing more then I thought.

Because just for a second, they feel far, far too long.


End file.
